Ferrari’s new team principal Marco Mattiacci in the garage in Shanghai. (Photo: Alastair Staley/LAT Photographic)

Marco Mattiacci says the opportunity to take over as head of the Ferrari F1 team came out of the blue in a phone call from Luca di Montezemolo last week, some 72 hours before the news of his appointment and the departure of Stefano Domenicali was officially confirmed.

The erstwhile CEO of Ferrari North America, who met the F1 media for the first time in China today, was in New York when his boss rang.

The two-time ALMS P1 champions previously announced that it would skip the Long Beach and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca rounds in order to focus on further development of its Oreca 03 Nissan package. However, a team representative confirmed to Sportscar365 on Thursday that they will not take part in any further races this year. No reason for the withdrawal has been given.